Robin Price, Printer & Publisher ~ Connecticut                      Share this page:

43, According to Robin Price, with Annotated Bibliography
By Robin Price
Middletown, Connecticut: Robin Price, Printer & Publisher, 2007.
Edition of 86.

11.75 x 8 x 1.5" closed; extends to 20 feet. Typefaces: ATF Garamond and Kabel. Six colors. Printed letterpress. Bibliography laser-printed. Housed in an olive green cloth-covered clamshell box, with a river section printed in blue, and map-paper spine label.

Robin Press, prospectus: "Constructing a book around the number 43 came to me during an Anthony Braxton solo saxophone jazz concert, on the eve of my forty-third birthday. The number evolved into my lens for obtaining text excerpts from 86 books significant to me as a book artist. Simple formulas, using modular arithmetic with the number 43, were applied to categories such as page number, paragraph, sentence, line of poetry, etc.

"The text is grouped by subject matter into sixteen page spreads. Titles of spreads include 'Water,' 'Counting,' and 'Flora.' Each is considered as something equivalent to an encyclopedia slice, in a manner directly inspired by the fifty-volume Zweite Enzyklöpadie von Tlön, by Ines v. Ketelhodt and Peter Malutzki. Visually flowing through the accordion-bound text sheets is a river image, borrowed from the Ninja Press book The Real World of Manuel Córdova.

"Paper maps, gathered from locations around the world that run along the 43rd parallels, form the background accordion that structurally supports the main text accordion, made of semi-translucent graph paper. Excerpts are identified by book title, printed in the margins, with a symbol that indicates the counting method used to retrieve it. A key for the symbols is printed on the Legend Card, found in a library-style pocket on the front cover of the book. A supplemental 32 page Annotated Bibliography, housed in a facing pocket within the case, provides personalized information on all titles. The pockets and the booklet cover are made of paper maps, mostly USGS topographic maps, and vary throughout the edition.

"The book is in an edition of 86, because forty-three copies seemed too few."
$2,250

By-and-by
A story by Amy Bloom with imagery by M. Jordan Tierney
Middletown, Connecticut: Robin Price, Printer & Publisher, 2005.
Edition of 125.

7.25 x 5"; 34 pages. Printed on Japanese handmades, acetate, doilies, Denril, Johannot, and Clearprint. Pyrographic cover of soft green Quinel, laminated to black Suedel Luxe on the interior. Japanese side-stitch binding. Metal type 10 point Bulmer, cast by Theo Rehak at the Dale Guild Type Foundry from the original ATF matrices. Titling face: Typo Upright. Reproduction techniques for the imagery by Tierney include photocopy and original rubbings using white crayon and spray paint. Materials used in the making of photocopied images include sewing patterns, broken china, and burned paper. One letterpress-printed image began as a watercolor. Second letterpress-printed image initially a spray-painted silhouette using the wildflower Queen Anne's lace. Designed, composed, printed letterpress, and handbound by Robin Price, with assistance from Anne Thompson.

Prospectus: "'Every death is violent' begins this short story by Amy Bloom, a writer who, as noted by Ursula K. Le Guin, 'can handle unspeakable pain with the quiet authority of a Chekhov, but has an even rarer gift: she describes happiness so that we can share in it.' The artist, M. Jordan Tierney, interprets the story with images that suggest memories. Her rubbings and shadow prints bear marks of absent artifacts. The texture and humility of the materials she uses—sewing patterns, paper doilies, broken china—speak of daily lives and the fragility of being."

Robin Price: "Fairly small and almost weightless, there is much transparency within. The story is violent, and it is exquisitely crafted. The more I read it, especially during hand typesetting, the more I realize why I want to publish this work: it scares me, and I am completely seduced by the beauty of the language and the tenderness of the narrator's voice. As for the imagery, it has been a deeply satisfying experience to work with Jordan. We first met in November 2003, at the Pyramid Atlantic book fair in D.C. She came to my table and asked intriguing, thoughtful questions about the work. Before she left, she told me that she was an artist, and asked if she could send some catalogs of her work. Six months later, when I was ready to go ahead with Amy's story, it was suddenly clear to me that I should send the
story to Jordan to see if she wanted to work on it. A very strong 'yes' was her prompt answer. Jordan's work, especially her 2-d work, often feels like an artifact, or the memory, of the thing or presence that no longer remains. Several of the images in By-and-by are rubbings, either direct, original
rubbings or printed reproductions (letterpress and xerox) of rubbings. She has expanded my thinking about ways to have imagery in books, and the best work happens when we are working together, either in her studio (D.C., then Baltimore) or mine."
$490

The Journey of the Guitar:
A Portrait of Pepe Romero
Selected and edited by Robin Price
Middletown, Connecticut: Robin Price, Printer & Publisher, 1999.
Edition of 200.

7 x 10.25”; 65 pages. Bound with a long-stitch variation over black tapes attached to black four-ply covers. A window in the front cover reveals Pitts' guitar. Letterpress from Bodoni Book with, appropriately, Stradivarius titling on Frankfurt white paper. A glossy vellum wrapper protects the book.

Reflections on his work in his own words by the world-renowned musician. Compiled from oral and written sources including transcriptions from private lessons and master classes, interviews, and film, with some additional material from unpublished manuscripts. With an original palladium print of a guitar by James W. Pitts on the title page. The deceptively simple presentation contains an intriguing composition that is part scholarly investigation, part poetic portrait of the artist drawn from various sources with subtly printed marginal annotations. The landscape format recalls the photo album, here with textual snapshots. Titled sections include an homage to his father and groupings of Romero's thoughts on: interpreting and performing; the guitar as friend; and transcendence through music. Transcriptions span the years from 1986 to 1998. Romero's eulogy to his legendary guitarist father, Celedonio Romero, his only teacher, and a dedication at the front are strikingly printed in gold ink on black Fabriano Italia.

As always, Price's printing and her detailed research into and presentation of her material are impeccable. Exceptionally handsome and satisfying.
$375

Ravaged with Joy
By William Everson.
Middletown, Connecticut: Robin Price, Printer & Publisher, 1999.
Edition of 200.

13 inches square; 36 pages. Edited, designed, and printed by Robin Price. Six dramatic woodcuts by Keiji Shinohara. Handsomely printed on a pale grey paper custom made for the edition by John and Kathy Koller. Binding co-designed by Daniel Kelm. Walnut-dyed flax paper over boards; exposed long-stitch sewing; slipcase.

This exquisite edition is a record of the live performance of his poems given by Everson at the University of California, Davis in May of 1975. It marked Everson's cathartic return to the campus where, five years earlier, he had given the notorious reading in which he entered as Brother Antoninus and left as William Everson after publicly casting off his monk's robe at the conclusion. The original recording, made by Sidney Berger who wrote the introduction for this edition, is reproduced on a CD included with the book. Final authorized versions of the poems were provided by Everson's executor, Bill Hotchkiss, who documents textual differences from the earlier recording. Poet Gary Young translated Everson's meditative speech between the poems into lines of verse and wrote a brief editorial note on that verse rendering. Housed in the back cover is a booklet, "The Experience of an Everson Reading," that contains essays by various authors (Robert Hass, Gary Snyder, Robert Creeley, et al.) that reveal the spellbinding, risk-taking excursion that was a "typical" Everson reading.

The soft-hued woodblock prints by Keiji Shinohara, most spanning the double-page spread, were created for and typographically integrated with the text. They contribute to the serene elegance of this scholarly and artistic edition.
$1200